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GSO Newsletter, Nov. 08

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GSO Newsletter, Nov. 08 VOLUME: II ISSUE: 2 November 2008 Get Screened Oakland: The Highlights Building the Capacity of the Believer to Serve! 2008 Black Church Institute (October 21-23, 2008) The Balm in Gilead held its Ninth Annual Black Church Institute on HIV and other Health Disparities at the Founders Inn and Conference Center in Virginia Beach, VA. The Institute featured: an awards ceremony; a daily early-morning physical workout with Benita H. Perkins, Personal Trainer; a daily morning glory and praise worship celebration, led by Psalmists Roz Brown and Greg Mitchell; five plenary sessions, two preaching sessions, and five workshop sessions. Pernessa Seele, Founder and CEO of “the Balm” welcomed Institute attendees and provided these words as the context for the two- and-a-half-day event: “If Black America was its own country, it would constitute the world’s 35 th most populous country. It would constitute the 28 th largest economy in the world, and it would rank 16 th in the number of people living with HIV/AIDS. The number of black Ameri- cans living with HIV is greater than the HIV population of Ethiopia, Botswana, Vietnam, Namibia, Haiti, Rwanda, and Guyana. As a result, African American life expectancy is lower than the life expectancy of people living in Algeria, the Dominican Republic, result, African Americans’ life expectancy is lower than the life expectancy for people living in Algeria, the Dominican Republic and Sri Lanka. History has already recorded the role of the church in the survival and Sri Lanka. History has already recorded the role of the church in the survival of African Americans through the ages. Today, we must re-commit ourselves—pastors, church leaders, individuals, families, congregations, and community—to the tremendous work of healing and restoration to wholeness.” Get Screened Oakland staff members Rev. Dr. Damon Powell and Marsha Martin attended the Institute. Ms. Nell Davis, an HIV- positive grandmother of fourteen and great grandmother of four, joined the Get Screened Oakland delegation. What follows are highlights from the Black Church Institute. This year’s Black Church Institute was preceded by the Wisdom of Healers Award ceremony. Among the honorees were the fol- lowing three distinguished African American faith leaders: Rt. Rev. George W. C. Walker, Sr., Senior Bishop of The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; Rt. Rev. William Graves, Senior Bishop of The Christian Methodist Church; and Rev. Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, Senior Pastor Emeritus of Canaan Baptist Church of Christ. The senior bishops thanked Ms. Seele and the staff of the Balm in Gilead for leading the way in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the black community and they each accepted the challenges that receiving the award brings: making sure all of the churches in their respective denominations have an HIV ministry program, continuing to show compassion to those living with HIV, and teaching about HIV prevention using comprehensive and scientifically sound best-practice approaches throughout their churches. During the ceremony, two other awards were presented. The Debra Fraser Howe Leadership Award was awarded to Goulda A. Downer, PhD, RD, who is Principal Investigator and Project Director of the National Minority AIDS Education and Training Center (NMAETC) as well as Principal Investigator at Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, D.C. The Phill Wilson Advocacy Award went to Rudolph “Rudy” H. Carn, Founder and CEO of the National AIDS Education and Services for PAGE 1 Minorities, Inc., in Atlanta, Ga. Dr. Downer and Mr. Carn accepted their awards on behalf of their hard working staffs and committed to continuing to work with Pernessa Seele and the Balm in Gilead as it reaches deeper into the African American community to raise awareness about HIV and to bring those who are positive into care. On Wednesday, October 22, the Institute officially opened. Rev. Dr. Damon Powell, who is Get Screened Oakland’s Outreach Coordinator, gave the opening invocation. He asked the attendees to open their hearts and their minds to receive the word for the days ahead. Following Rev. Dr. Powell, Bishop Walker brought greetings on behalf of all of the bishops gathered for the Institute. Bishop Walker thanked Ms. Seele and the Balm for “shining a spotlight on the devastating aspects of AIDS, especially for the black Church. He stated, “I don’t know what it will take for us to get it…We don’t seem to want to…as HIV worms its way to and throughout our community.” He continued, “This is an opportunity for the Black Church— the single most effective voice in the black community…. If it is muffled and silenced, see what can happen to us…look at the shocking statistics about AIDS in our communities. Today, it is clear we cannot speak loud enough. Thank you, Pernessa, for making us understand the impor- tance of ‘doing something to prevent further HIV transmission in our communities’…I have great hopes.” Rashad Burgess, the Director of the Capacity Building Division of the CDC, brought the agency’s greetings to the attendees and talked about its work. He briefly described what CDC is prepared to do to build capacity in light of the recently released demographic data revealing that 56,000 people annually are newly infected with HIV in the United States. That statistic is a 50% increase from the long held estimate of 40,000 new infections annually. Mr. Burgess cautioned that new money is not likely to be forthcoming in light of the economic crisis. However, he did offer an important reminder message: “When you have a charge and a call, less money will not get in the way of the work.” The morning plenary, An Urgent Call to the African American Faith Community, featured Dr. James E.K. Hildreth, Director of the Center for AIDS Health Disparities at the Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., and Dr. Mindy Thompson Ful- lilove, Research Psychiatrist and Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University in New York City. Dr. Hildreth gave an overview of his research, which is a highly specialized initiative focusing on the “whys and hows” of the overrepresentation of African Americans with HIV in the United States. During his talk, Dr. Hildreth gave a review of HIV’s natural history and discussed the importance of understanding “scientifically” why African Americans have five times the prevalence of HIV. While Dr. Hildreth does not have any answers, he does believe his research will help those working in the areas of vaccine and microbicide development…until a cure is found. Dr. Fullilove began her remarks by saying the world is in a global meltdown, and “no one knows the scope of it…however, this present-day crisis shows how we have gone from health in the body to health in society to illness in the body and illness in society. Hatred is our national illness, and we need a balm in Gilead to help us to heal the national psychosis… important task at hand is to open our hearts to the love of God and the love of one another.” She added, it is not enough to see the epidemic; you have to believe you are suppose to act...stigma kills, hate kills. Our own hatred makes a bad situation worse. We must start to act out of love.” What are the moments on the horizon that will lend themselves to a breakthrough…perhaps the national strategy discussion provides a new beginning. But that strategy cannot recommend the same old, same old. We must be strong enough for chance of heart...We must move from hatred to love.” Dr. Fullilove concluded her remarks by saying that the defi- nition of insanity is “doing the same things over and over again, expecting different results.” She encouraged everyone to change the things they are doing and to start to re-think the epidemic and the U.S. response. The morning plenary was followed by the opening preacher, Rt. Rev. John Bryant, Senior Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Rev. Bryant’s message was a simple one, taken from the story of the farmer who needed laborers to tend his fields in Matthew 20. In the story, the laborers complain to the farmer who hired them that it was unfair for everyone to get paid the same amount even though some of the workers had only worked a short time. The farmer asked, was it not his choice and right to pay what he wanted to pay the workers and everyone was getting paid what they had agreed to work for? The cen- PAGE 2 theme of the story is the first shall be last, and the last shall be first. Instead of remaining silent and walking by those in need, we need sight and we need to say something. Two panel discussions followed this opening sermon. The first panel, entitled Lift Every Voice! Listen! Understand! Love! , provided a unique opportunity for trans and gay people, HIV-positive and -negative alike, to share a platform at a faith-based meeting. Speakers on the panel included Nell Davis, who spoke from the perspective of a 61 year-old HIV-positive “church lady” and great grandmother of four; Marvelyn Brown, the HIV-positive, 26 year-old author of the newly released memoir The Naked Truth: Young, Beautiful and (HIV) Positive , Kali Lindsey, an HIV-positive gay man and Vice President of Federal Af- fairs for the National Association of People with AIDS, Valerie Spencer of the Transcend Empowerment Institute; and Dale Anthony, an HIV-positive motivational speaker and the Founder of Anthony House, a self-help organization for families. All of the panelists told their personal stories about how HIV came into their lives, or how they were able to remain HIV-negative.
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